Nick Walker doesn’t want any weaknesses holding him back for the 2025 Mr. Olympia. On June 4, 2025, he pushed through an intense pull day workout 19 weeks from stepping back onstage.
After withdrawing from the last two Mr. Olympias, there was doubt about Walker’s ability to climb back to the top of the Men’s Open. Despite these concerns, Walker didn’t let outside noise stop his progress. He took Derek Lunsford into a sudden death posedown at the 2025 Pittsburgh Pro, and while he settled for silver, the bodybuilding community agreed that he’s back in full force.
To qualify for Olympia, Walker dominated the 2025 New York Pro. This was the third time he won the prestigious event, more than any other Open Bodybuilder. With the biggest event of the year approaching, ‘The Mutant’ isn’t pulling punches and is focused on bringing his all-time best to Vegas.
Nick Walker’s Pull Session 19 Weeks from 2025 Mr. Olympia
Find the exercises Walker included in his latest training session below, courtesy of his recent YouTube video:
- Cable Lat Pullover – warmup
- Lat Pulldown
- Single Arm Pulldown Machine
- Arsenal T-Bar Row Machine
- Smith Machine Row
- Smith Machine Shrugs
- Rear Delt Cable Fly
- Cable Bicep Curl
- Ab/Crunch Bench
- Hyperextension Bench
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Cable Lat Pullover
He warmed up with cable lat pullovers, pushing blood into his lats before taking on other exercises to grow his back.
“Pull day. We’re warming up. Normally, this would be an exercise, but we’re actually going to warm up with this, just to get some blood flow into the lats.”
Lat Pulldown
Walker included lat pulldowns in his routine, though he admitted he hasn’t used them in years.
“I haven’t done [these] in years,” shared Walker.
Single Arm Pulldown Machine
Walker has decided to slow down his resting periods in an attempt to regain any strength he lost during preps for Pittsburgh or New York.
“Now that we are basically 19 weeks, now I’m going to training-wise slow down my rest periods a little bit, rest a little more in between so that way I can regain any strength that I thought was lost, not that I really lost any to be honest, which is actually pretty cool. Now, I want to see if I can get stronger than what I was.”
Arsenal T-Bar Row Machine
He continued to focus on deep contractions throughout sets on the t-bar row machine.
“Very, very good row machine here, probably one of my favorites. I always say I don’t like Arsenal but I use a lot of Arsenal.”
Smith Machine Row
Next, he kept reps relatively low for Smith machine rows to spare his lower back from any unneeded stress.
“Don’t want to go high on reps and tax my lower back. I’m going to touch two, I haven’t done these in a long time. So if I hit on the higher end, 12-15, it’s fine. I’m not going to worry about it too much.”
Smith Machine Shrugs
Walker believes traps are one of his minor weaknesses onstage and plans to fix that with shrugs.
“One of my weaknesses onstage, not a glaring weakness, but enough of a weakness for me to notice,” he shared. “I love Smith, barbell is fantastic obviously, but I feel like in the Smith machine you can get a better contraction and squeeze.”
Rear Delt Cable Fly
Instead of the reverse pec deck, he opted for rear delt cable flies, paying close attention to a good stretch and squeeze.
“Sometimes I do prefer these over just a reverse pec deck. I just think I can get a really good stretch on these, a very hard squeeze and hold, we’ll do about three sets here, 12-15 reps.”
Cable Bicep Curl
While his head coach, Kyle Wilkes, dialed down his arm training, Walker emphasized that you can never have too big of arms.
“Kyle is limiting my arm training. I don’t know if I like it. I’m known for the arms. I don’t think they’ll shrink but you can never have too big of arms,” shared Walker.
Ab/Crunch Bench
Walker proceeded with sets of ab crunches to tax his midsection, an area he intends to bring up for the Olympia.
Hyperextension Bench
He finished off the workout with bench hyperextensions, focusing on slow, controlled repetitions.
Discussions about the 2025 Mr. Olympia have raged since Walker’s last performance. Rich Gaspari thought he deserved the nod against Lunsford in Pittsburgh and later predicted that Walker would fight for a top-five spot when he makes his way back to Olympia.
With longer resting periods during his workouts, Walker aims to bring unprecedented strength to his future sessions. The 2025 Mr. Olympia takes place from October 9-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
RELATED: New York Pro Champ Nick Walker Powers Through Savage Leg Day for Olympia Prep
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